Reunited
by MH2002
Summary: There had been a distinctive rise in crime in the kingdom of Corona lately, frequent reports of petty theft and coning. But Eugene is more focused on the fact that he keeps lying to Rapunzel. Well, lying was a big word. He just had never told her the whole truth. He wasn't an orphan. Well, he was, before he was adopted; by two men, named Miguel and Tulio.


To say that Eugene was happy, would the understatement of the century. He never thought that he could even have the chance to be this happy, it certainly was a far cry from the orphanage where he was found. Rapunzel was his dream come true...which is why he hated lying to her about his past.

Well, lying was a big word. He just had never told her the whole truth. At first, it was because he barely knew her, then it was because he was afraid she wouldn't except him for it, which he admits was a stupid idea. But now, he was just in too deep. He knew that if he told her now, she might never forgive him for not telling her the truth. He had to keep up his alias as the thief orphan boy who grew up to find the missing Corona Princess.

Except, he wasn't an orphan. Well, he was, before he was adopted; by two men, named Miguel and Tulio.

* * *

Eugene was sitting in the throne room while Rapunzel spoke with a few of castle's royal advisers, they were talking about the numerous wedding gifts that the kingdom had received from some of the neighbouring kingdoms.

It had been just over a month since Eugene and Rapunzel had gotten married. It had been the perfect wedding, well, except the ring bearers looked like they had gone through hell for some reason. But Eugene couldn't help but think of who should have been there, his dads. It had been over 5 years since he had run away to claim enough money to make sure they'd never have to worry about cash ever again. But, unfortunately, he had caught up with the Stabbington Brothers and his dreams morphed from getting money for his family to getting money for himself.

He's not proud of who he was after he ran away and before he met Rapunzel. He didn't regret running away, because if he didn't then he would have never met his sunshine, but that still didn't quell the hurt in his heart, knowing that he just run away out of the blue and then never spoken to them again, he hadn't even written to them since he left. And even if he wanted to now, they no doubt would've on from where they were staying since he had left, by now. He had no idea where they were, or even if they were still alive.

God, he hoped they were alive somewhere.

He knows he shouldn't worry, they've been in the business a lot longer than he had and always managed to get themselves out of tough situations, but he just couldn't help it, he wondered if they worried about him too. Knowing them, there was no way had hadn't freaked out when they found the small note he had left.

Eugene was brought out of his deep thing by hands being brought over his eyes, blinding him.

"Guess who?" A sweet voice said in his ear. He smiled as he lifted his hand to rub the knuckle of the soft hand.

"I didn't know that an angel had decided to visit the castle."

A small giggle could be heard before Eugene swiftly swiped the hands off his face before turning to sweep his new wife off her feet with her squealing all the way.

While Eugene could never forget his dads, for this moment he would put them aside to focus his whole undivided attention on his wife. "Now you hear me." She said in a cheeky tone after he had set her down on the ground. "What do you mean?" He asked, perplexed.

"I was calling you but you were so deep in thought you mustn't have heard me."

Yeah, he did tend to get like that when he was deep in thought.

"Aww, I'm sorry Blondie. I get like that sometimes." He said in an apologetic but embarrassed tone as he rubbed the back of his neck, not meeting her eyes.

"You wanna talk about it?" Rapunzel asked in a gentle voice, she could see that whatever he was thinking about, it weighed heavily on his mind.

Eugene shook his head, even if he wanted too, he couldn't burden her with his predicament.

"Nah, Sunshine. Everything's fine, just thinking about the new rise in crime that we've had recently. Simply can't figure out who's behind it."

While it was a lie, it was a believable lie, ever since he had become a Guard instructor, finding out patterns in the crime rate had become one of his jobs, and there had been a rise in crime in the kingdom of Corona lately, frequent reports of petty theft and coning. Which wasn't new, there was always going to thieves and con men in every kingdom you went too, but reports had significantly gone up in the last few weeks; just after the wedding.

Rapunzel had been with Eugene long enough to tell when he was lying but decided to not to press the issues, he would tell her when he was ready.

"Alright, if you're sure. You've seamed a little down since we got married..."

She couldn't help but worry about Eugene's mood, was he having second thoughts? Eugene's face switched from gloomy to panicked before gathering Rapunzel's face in his hands.

"Rapunzel, don't think for a second that I didn't want to marry you, for gods sakes, I was asking you for years. Do you think I'd keep asking if I was unsure? I've just had a lot on my mind and I didn't want to bother you, being a princess is stressful enough having to listen about my difficulties, I love you too much to stress you out like that."

Rapunzel's eyes widen at hearing the emotional speech, while Eugene wasn't an Apathetic person, it usually took a lot for him to talk about what he was truly feeling. She gathered him a tight hug, she didn't think that it was bothering him this much. This wouldn't stand.

"Eugene, knowing that something is bothering you and you thinking you have to hide it from me, well, of course, it will bother me. We agreed that we would never hide our problems from each other, if you don't want to talk about, then that's fine but don't hide for me, Please?"

Eugene hugged back as he listened, she was right, she was completely right. Pulling back from the tight hug, he places a loose strand of her golden blond hair behind her ear. He sighed, he couldn't take it any more, he couldn't take lying to her any more.

"You're right. You're completely right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for hiding this from you and I'm sorry for lying to you."

At the word 'Lying' Rapunzel pulled back and arched her brow. Lying? Lying about what?

But before the princess had time to question her husband about what he meant the doors of the throne room were thrust open with so much force it made the two inside jump in fright. They quickly calmed down they only saw that it was just the captain of the guard as he quickly crossed the room before bowing at the knee.

"You're Highness, my Lord. We got them, we finally caught them." He panted out, he clearly had rushed over to tell them this information but the two were thoroughly confused.

"I-I'm sorry, what? Got who? Caught who?" Rapunzel spluttered out

"The thieves who have caused the rise in crime your highness, we caught them coning people out of their money with loaded dice." Loaded dice, a classic. He could remember making those for the first time, and who taught him...

"Oh, that's good, was there a lot of them?" He asked, there had been a big increase in reports of theft and people of being conned out of their money, so he expected a gang of some kind.

"Oh no, it was only two men. A blond and a dark-haired one. Almost got away when they posed a fake dual in the street, but we managed to catch up to them." The caption said, looking quite proud of himself.

... What?

No, there was no way.

"Wait!" Eugene yelled out as the captain turned to leave, supposedly to deal with the criminals.

"D-Did one of them a red shirt, grass-green eyes and golden blond hair while the other had a blue shirt with a brown vest, lake blue eyes and long black hair?" He asked in a rush. It couldn't be, it was impossible...

The Captain and Rapunzel were looking at him with wide eyes, what was he talking about? Did he know these men?

The caption nodded his head slightly, that was almost an exact description of the two perpetrators, he knew because had seen them himself.

"Y-yes my lord but I don't see-!" The man was quickly cut off as Eugene interrupted him with a loud, bellowing statement.

"Bring them to me! If the refuse, tell them... Eugene wants to see them." With the order, the man quickly bowed before again rushing out the door. Eugene then put his hands to his head, face full of shock and panic before beginning to pace around the room, muttering to himself.

"No, no no... There's no way...it's impossible...it can't be..." He ran his hand through his hair as Rapunzel watched with a shocked expression.

"Eugene... Eugene... Eugene!" She yelled out, trying to catch his attention as he was clearly distressed. She put her hand on his shoulder when he continued to overlook her. "EUGENE!" she practically roared in his face

With that roar, his thoughts were brought back to the present and Rapunzel. "Eugene, you're scaring me, why did you tell them to bring those criminals here? Do you know them?" She asked in a stern but confused temper.

Eugene figured that now was a good time as ever.

"Know them? They're my Dad's."

As almost on cue, the doors opened once again only slowly and two men stepped in. The room was silent and the two men stepped closer to the couple and as Eugene stepped forward.

All three of them couldn't believe their eyes.

"...Son?" The blond man said in a small, hesitant voice.

Eugene's eyes started to well up at hearing a voice he hadn't heard in 5 years.

"Dad, Papa..." Eugene didn't have time to think before Miguel and Tulio ran forward and enveloped their long-lost son in an almost crushing hug, but he didn't care, he just hugged them back as small treats started to run down his face, accidentally staining their shirts.

Rapunzel could only watch the scene before her, she was confused but from what Eugene had just told her, these men were Eugene's parents... but they were both men. But then she thinks about her past, she thought she had a mother, that was a lie, but she had been adopted by her so that means must have adopted him.

"Eugene, it's been so long. We missed you so much." Miguel spoke as he pulled back to cup his son's face. "Oh, you haven't changed a bit, look at you, you're so handsome. I wished we could have seen the wedding, but we just missed it, we didn't even know you were here until the news of your wedding became big news around the world. How have you been my son, have you been eating enough, no new scars' huh? God, I hope not."

Miguel was rapid-fire talking as he nuzzled his face against Eugene's. It had been 5 years, could you blame him for being a little enthusiastic to finally see the son he thought he had lost all those years ago?

Miguel caught eyes with the blond woman also in the room, and she waved slightly, looking a bit bewildered but happy. Miguel's eyes widened as he realised just who he was looking at and the ring on her finger made it even clearer.

Pulling back completely he walked closer and bowed at the beautiful woman's feet. "You must be the long-lost princess who was able to get our son to stay in one place, so we could find him and I must say you are the most stunning creature I've ever seen," He then gently picked up her hand and kissed the knuckle, he then glanced back at the dark-haired man who too had stood up and was watching them with intense blue eyes. "Well, the second most stunning creature I've ever seen."

Rapunzel's face went completely cherry red as the admittedly handsome blond man showered her with compliments. She smiled as the man stood before her. "Oh where our manners, I doubt that our Eugene has told you about us, So I am Miguel." Without missing a beat the dark-haired man stepped forward and put his hand out to shake. "And I am Tulio." She gently gripped the hand in from of her and gave a hardy shake, the more she was around them, the more excited she grew, She had IN LAWS!

"It's very nice to meet you guys, and your right, I didn't even know you two existed until just now," While she said it in a joking tone, it was complicity true. "But still, I look forward to getting to know you, gentlemen."

At the mention of Eugene, Tulio's mood morphed from happy to meet Rapunzel to a fit of ferocious anger as he turned to his Son, without a word he stalked over to him, reached his arm up and gripped Eugene's ear in a death grip, pulling him down by it, causing Eugene to squeal in pain.

"OW! Owowowowow! What are you doing!?" Eugene squeaked out.

"EUGENE! What the hell did you think you were playing at running away like that?! Do you have any idea how worried me and your father were when we found you gone?!" Tulio yelled pulling his son away to Miguel and Rapunzel, who could only watch on, wincing in sympathy.

"I-I left a note!" Eugene pleaded, trying to quell his angry Papa, but it was no use, this anger had been building up for 5 years, there was no stopping him now.

"Did you really expect that to satisfy us?! We thought you had been taken away by the mob or something, we looked for months, only to find you had paired up with the Stabbingtion Brothers! Really Eugene?! The Stabbingtion Brothers?!" Tulio pulled his son closer, so he could stare right into eyes, he needed to understand how he was feeling.

"You didn't even write! Not once in 5 years did you write to us to even say you were still alive. We lost all hope, we honestly thought you were dead until your wanted poster started propping up everywhere! God..." Tulio's death grip had disappeared off his ear and his hands starting shaking and his breath hitching. Eugene could see that his papa was tearing up now and it shocked him, not once in all his life of knowing his papa did he ever see him cry.

Eugene was then again engulfed in a tight hug by his papa, only now he could hear the almost silent sobs that Tulio was emitting. Wrapping his arms around him, Eugene began to rub his back, hoping to soothe him as well as play with the slightly more-grey-then-what-he-remembered black hair. "You ditched us... We thought you had ditched us for a better life than we couldn't provide... Heh, you always did want your own island..." Tulio said against Eugene's shoulder as he clung to his son's vest as if he would disappear again if he were to let go.

Eugene could now see just how much his disappearance had affected his dad's. He knew they loved him, but he never expected that they would have worried that much or spent all there time looking for him, he still didn't regret running away, but he did regret never writing. He can't begin to imagine what they must have been feeling, he guesses he shouldn't tell them he technically died saving Rapunzel.

"I'm sorry. I never meant to abandoned you guys, I wanted us to be rich enough to the point where we'd never have to worry about cash ever again but I just got so caught up in all the promised riches I forgot who I was getting them for." At the end of his little speech, he motioned for his Dad and Rapunzel to come into the hug, which both joined in no time.

"Can you guys ever forgive me?" He asked, looking into the eyes of the three people who loved him more than anything in the world and the feeling was mutual.

"Only if you let them tell me every single embarrassing story of you they have under their belt." Rapunzel said in a teasing tone. "Oh, my dear, we have plenty of those, like that time he accidentally ran around naked in the city square?" Eugene's face when completely red at the mention of that story, he hated it. Why did he have to tell Rapunzel that one?

"Good one Miguel. Hey, you should tell them in Eugene's room, because that where he is going to be for a while." Tulio said gripping the back of his vest. "What? Why?" He asked, not unlike a child.

"You seriously think you can run away like that and not get punished? I don't think so." Tulio said, yanking him closer, just like a parent would, to make sure their child wouldn't get away. "You are Grounded. So very Grounded!"

"What?! I'm a fulling grown man!" Eugene protested while Rapunzel and Miguel vigorously laughed in the background.

Yeah, and I'm still your father and while I'm around, you'll listen to me. So Room. Now." Even though Eugene had been away from his parents for 5 years, but he still knew not to argue with his papa when he was like this.

So he led his family back to his and Rapunzel's room. Where they spent the rest of that day catching up, Rapunzel hearing the story of how Tulio and Miguel's first met and El Dorado and then Rapunzel and Eugene telling them how they met, everything was wonderful. This is exactly what Eugene wanted, his whole family together and learning about each other.

Life was going to be perfect from now on.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIED?!"

"... I got better?"

He was so grounded for life.


End file.
